White Rhino historical distribution
The black dots are some of national parks/protected areas managed by the NGO African Parks, that likely have suitable habitat for White Rhinos, they were hoping to take on the management of the two Angolan parks that I've marked in green, but evidently their negotiations with the Angolan government have not proved successful yet, so they are not managing those parks. African Parks recently purchased Platinum Rhino, the largest private rhino farm in South Africa, taking charge of some 2,000 Southern White Rhinos, their intention is to rewild all of these rhinos over a period of time, some have already been moved to other reserves in South Africa. Other SWRs obtained before the Purchase of Platinum Rhino have been already moved, 30 were introduced to Akagera National Park in Rwanda, that as the map shows is outside of the White Rhinos historical range, but they likely lived there in prehistoric times and should do well there now and should be safe. 16 were introduced to Garamba NP in the DRC the last stronghold of the NWR, that is now sadly functionally extinct, White Rhinos were important to the ecology of Garamba so introducing SWRs to the park is a good thing, but keeping them safe will be a challenge, but then keeping the safe in South Africa where they came from is a serious challenge.
I expect that African Parks will introduce SWRs to some of the other parks that they manage in the coming years, currently Matusadona NP in Zimbabwe is the only park they manage that is within the SWRs likely former range, but I don't see a big problem with moving more to parks outside that range. I don't know if they will send SWRs to Chad, I expect that they might well, but restoring Black Rhinos to that country would be the bigger priority, so they may want to take more Black Rhinos to Zakouma NP, before considering taking any SWRs there, I don't know. The park should be safe enough, but White Rhinos are larger and more conspicuous than Black Rhinos, because they are grazers and favour more open habitats, making them easier to find and poach.
As part of the effort to save the SWR in South Africa, once most of the major parks and reserves there had been restocked, they decided to export rhinos not just to former range states, a reasonable number were introduced to Kenya, as the map shows Kenya is outside the former historical range of the species, but they likely occurred there in prehistoric times, there's now a quite significant extralimital population of SWRs in Kenya. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy as well as having SWRs is home to the last two known NWRs to females mother and daughter Najin and Fatu, who are now unable to breed, conservationists and scientist are hopefully, that they can create a new population, and already have 30 frozen embryos ready to implant into SWR surrogates.
Another extralimital population was established at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary close to Murchison Falls NP in Uganda, with the NWR functionally extinct, UWA has taken the decision to repopulate their parks with SWRs. MFNP was for a short time home to an extralimital herd of NWRs captured in West Nile Province just across the Nile from the park, the last one was probably killed by TPDF soldiers during the Tanzania-Uganda war, in the near future, UWA will likely move some SWRs from Ziwa to MFNP.
Just recently another NGO The Peace Parks Foundation reintroduced SWRs to Zinave NP in Mozambique, the original population in the south of the country was likely extirpated by hunters in colonial times, but SWRs were also reintroduced towards the end of Portuguese colonial rule, but were then extirpated by poachers during or following the country's civil war, their return should be important for their conservation, presuming PPF and the national parks authority ANAC can keep them safe from poachers.
White Rhino historical distribution
The black dots are some of national parks/protected areas managed by the NGO African Parks, that likely have suitable habitat for White Rhinos, they were hoping to take on the management of the two Angolan parks that I've marked in green, but evidently their negotiations with the Angolan government have not proved successful yet, so they are not managing those parks. African Parks recently purchased Platinum Rhino, the largest private rhino farm in South Africa, taking charge of some 2,000 Southern White Rhinos, their intention is to rewild all of these rhinos over a period of time, some have already been moved to other reserves in South Africa. Other SWRs obtained before the Purchase of Platinum Rhino have been already moved, 30 were introduced to Akagera National Park in Rwanda, that as the map shows is outside of the White Rhinos historical range, but they likely lived there in prehistoric times and should do well there now and should be safe. 16 were introduced to Garamba NP in the DRC the last stronghold of the NWR, that is now sadly functionally extinct, White Rhinos were important to the ecology of Garamba so introducing SWRs to the park is a good thing, but keeping them safe will be a challenge, but then keeping the safe in South Africa where they came from is a serious challenge.
I expect that African Parks will introduce SWRs to some of the other parks that they manage in the coming years, currently Matusadona NP in Zimbabwe is the only park they manage that is within the SWRs likely former range, but I don't see a big problem with moving more to parks outside that range. I don't know if they will send SWRs to Chad, I expect that they might well, but restoring Black Rhinos to that country would be the bigger priority, so they may want to take more Black Rhinos to Zakouma NP, before considering taking any SWRs there, I don't know. The park should be safe enough, but White Rhinos are larger and more conspicuous than Black Rhinos, because they are grazers and favour more open habitats, making them easier to find and poach.
As part of the effort to save the SWR in South Africa, once most of the major parks and reserves there had been restocked, they decided to export rhinos not just to former range states, a reasonable number were introduced to Kenya, as the map shows Kenya is outside the former historical range of the species, but they likely occurred there in prehistoric times, there's now a quite significant extralimital population of SWRs in Kenya. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy as well as having SWRs is home to the last two known NWRs to females mother and daughter Najin and Fatu, who are now unable to breed, conservationists and scientist are hopefully, that they can create a new population, and already have 30 frozen embryos ready to implant into SWR surrogates.
Another extralimital population was established at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary close to Murchison Falls NP in Uganda, with the NWR functionally extinct, UWA has taken the decision to repopulate their parks with SWRs. MFNP was for a short time home to an extralimital herd of NWRs captured in West Nile Province just across the Nile from the park, the last one was probably killed by TPDF soldiers during the Tanzania-Uganda war, in the near future, UWA will likely move some SWRs from Ziwa to MFNP.
Just recently another NGO The Peace Parks Foundation reintroduced SWRs to Zinave NP in Mozambique, the original population in the south of the country was likely extirpated by hunters in colonial times, but SWRs were also reintroduced towards the end of Portuguese colonial rule, but were then extirpated by poachers during or following the country's civil war, their return should be important for their conservation, presuming PPF and the national parks authority ANAC can keep them safe from poachers.